Flying Blue miles are easy to accrue as Flying Blue is a 1:1 transfer partner of ThankYou Points, Membership Rewards and Starpoints.

Flying Blue is the loyalty program for Air France and KLM, as well as a handful of other airlines:

Aircalin is based in New Caledonia, a French territory in the South Pacific. HOP! is the French regional subsidiary and Transavia is the Dutch regional subsidiary of AirFrance/KLM. Tarom is based in Romania.

Flying Blue is a member of the SkyTeam alliance and also partnered with these these non-allied airlines:

Flying Blue offers three different award levels: Flex, Classic and Promo. Below is a chart from flying blue.com that explains each.

Flex Awards are not worth considering as they cost two to three times what a Classic Award would cost. The best values are found with Classic Awards and the Promo Awards. Classic Awards can roughly be equated to a Saver level award from a different loyalty program, and Promo Awards are further discounted Classic Awards.

Classic Award Charts

The only award pricing chart Flying Blue publishes on their website is for awards originating in Europe.

Flying Blue Promo Awards

Every month, Flying Blue releases a new list of Promo Awards, which allow travel from specified cities in the USA to anywhere in Europe, Israel, Morocco, Tunisia, or Algeria for 25% or 50% off the normal miles price.

Usually you have one month to book awards that must be flown 1-4 months in the future.

So what does 25% and 50% off an award to between the United States and Europe look like?

Business Class Promo Awards can be reduced to reasonably competitive mile prices, but the excessive fuel surcharges tacked on negate their value. But as you can see, the Economy prices are absolute steals.

An important point to keep in mind with Promo Awards is that they cannot be changed, cancelled or refunded, so speculative bookings are not an option.

I’m not sure though about the policy on stopovers for Promo Awards, but you can call Flying Blue to try to add one to your next Promo award.

It also says on their website that it is “possible to combine several flights and airline partners on the same ticket” on Classic Awards. As for Promo Awards, you are limited to the city in which the promo is defined to depart, and the airlines that are listed as being on sale from that city.

Fuel Surcharges

Fuel surcharges are omnipresent on Flying Blue awards no matter which level it is. When redeeming Flying Blue miles on Flying Blue’s own airlines, the surcharges are as follows:

From the US to Europe, the fuel surcharge each way is 50 euros in economy, 110 euros in Premium Economy, and 180 euros in Business or First.

At current exchange rates, that works out to:

a modest $112 + taxes out of pocket on roundtrip awards to Europe in economy

an annoying $246 + taxes out of pocket on roundtrip awards to Europe in Premium Economy

a punitive $403 + taxes out of pocket on roundtrip Business Class awards to Europe.

As for redemptions on partner airlines, fuel surcharges vary. SkyTeam partner Delta doesn’t have fuel surcharges on its tickets within the Americas, so that’s a great option to avoid paying cash out of pocket.

Sweetspots for Redemptions

30,000 Flying Blue miles + $5.60 in taxes/fees- Mainland US to Hawaii roundtrip in Delta Economy

25,000 Flying Blue miles + $122.81 in taxes/fees- US to Mexico roundtrip in Delta Economy

50,000 Flying Blue miles – US to Israel roundtrip in Economy, with taxes/fees as low as $122.13 depending on what carrier you fly

50,000 Flying Blue miles – US to North Africa roundtrip in Economy, with taxes/fees as low as $123.48 depending on what carrier you fly

Searching Award Space and Booking

You can search for Flying Blue award space at flyingblue.com once you have started an account.

Sign in to your Flying Blue account and select “Use My Miles”. Everything on the search form is pretty intuitive; just make sure you don’t check “Flights allowing changes only” because Promo Awards don’t allow changes.

In your search results, the discounted Promo Award prices are already coded into the price displayed on the calendars, which will display the one way price.

Classic Awards can booked either online via the same process described above or by calling Flying Blue at (1 800 375 8723). And remember that you have to call in if you’d like to include stopovers on a roundtrip Classic Award.

Getting Citi ThankYou Points to transfer to Flying Blue

The best cards to rack up Flying Blue miles are the:

Citi ThankYou® Premier Card: 40,000 bonus ThankYou Points after $3,000 in purchases made with your card in the first 3 months the account is open. The card also earns 3x points on travel and gas and 2x points on dining and entertainment

Transferring ThankYou Points to Virgin Atlantic Miles

Bottom Line

Flying Blue awards in Business class are generally a terrible value because of the crippling fuel surcharges, but there are deals to be found flying Economy between the US and Mexico, Hawaii, Israel or Northern Africa as well as utilizing their Promo Awards between American cities and Europe that rotate every few months.

Editorial Disclaimer: The editorial content is not provided or commissioned by the credit card issuers. Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of the credit card issuers, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the credit card issuers.

The comments section below is not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser’s responsibility to ensure all questions are answered.

[…] loyalty program of Air France and a 1:1 transfer partner of Chase, American Express, Citi, and SPG. Flying Blue has a number of well-documented sweet spots including 15,000 miles one way to Hawaii from the United States […]

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Sarah Page Maxwell is a miles aficionado and avid traveler, born in Virginia, raised in North Carolina, and currently based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She has earned and redeemed millions of miles for herself and others. Traveling for free, the 29-year-old has been to 20+ countries, making sure to catch as many sunsets in each that she can.

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MileValue is the only miles-and-points blog that thinks systematically about the value of your miles and how to maximize that value!

Many of the credit card offers that appear on this site are from credit card companies from which MileValue.com receives compensation if you are approved. Compensation impacts placement of cards on the credit card page and banner placement, but does not on the articles posted on MileValue.com. This site does not include all credit card offers available in the marketplace.

Many of the credit card offers that appear on this site are from credit card companies from which MileValue.com receives compensation if you are approved. Compensation impacts placement of cards on the credit card page and banner placement, but does not on the articles posted on MileValue.com. This site does not include all credit card offers available in the marketplace.